social-engagement

A roundup of sev­er­al excel­lent arti­cles this week:

Keep­ing Your Brain Fit (US News and World Report)

- “In a study of more than 2,800 peo­ple ages 65 or old­er, Har­vard researchers found that those with at least five social ties—church groups, social groups, reg­u­lar vis­its, or phone calls with fam­i­ly and friends—were less like­ly to suf­fer cog­ni­tive decline than those with no social ties.”

- “The work­ing hypoth­e­sis is that it has some­thing to do with stress man­age­ment,” says Mar­i­lyn Albert, a neu­ro­sci­en­tist at Johns Hop­kins and codi­rec­tor of the Alzheimer’s research cen­ter there. In ani­mal stud­ies, a pro­longed ele­va­tion in stress hor­mones dam­ages the hip­pocam­pus. Social engage­ment appears to boost peo­ple’s sense of con­trol, which affects their stress lev­el. Cre­ative arts seem to be a high­ly promis­ing way to increase social engage­ment. George Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty’s Cohen has found that elder­ly peo­ple who joined choirs also stepped up their oth­er activ­i­ties dur­ing a 12-month peri­od, while a non­sing­ing con­trol group dropped out of some activ­i­ties. The singers also report­ed few­er health prob­lems, while the con­trol group report­ed an increase.”

We Nev­er For­get Any­thing (Any­more) (Pre­ven­tion Magazine)

- “Pro­cess­ing new infor­ma­tion when we’re anx­ious is tough; the stress itself is a dis­trac­tion. Fer­nan­dez taught Lau­rie this relax­ation trick: [Read more…] about Stress Man­age­ment as Key Fac­tor For Cog­ni­tive Fit­ness, and More News